Harvard Art Museums renovation and expansion is one of the latest projects made by RPBW - Renzo Piano Building Workshop and was completed in 2014.
Harvard University’s three art museums are being consolidated into one reorganized and upgraded facility, Harvard Art Museums, on the current site of the Fogg Museum on Quincy Street. The restored historic courtyard of the Fogg Museum will be at the heart of 200,00 sq. ft (18,500 sq.m) of new museum space.
The new facility will combine the Fogg’s protected 1920’s Georgian revival building, with a new addition on its east side, along Prescott Street. A new glazed rooftop structure bridges the old and the new. The rooftop addition, designed with sensitivity to surrounding historic structures, will allow controlled natural light into the conservation lab, study centers, and galleries, as well as the courtyard below.
The original 1920’s building by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbot Architects, was the first of its kind, combining museum space, teaching and conservation in one facility to promote scholarship. Following this tradition, the new centre is designed to make the collection of 250,000 objects more accessible for teaching and learning.
